jenns.world

On March 31, 2016 I visited the village my close friend Niisha Kshetri grew up in along with one of the guests staying at Hidden Paradise with me, and now considered a good friend Kim (from Quebec ). At the age of 17 Niisha was married to Manish who both work at the family run Pokhara hotel  just North of Lakeside where I spend most of my days in Nepal. Niisha’s village is just a 45 minute bus ride outside of Pokhara and has a beautiful view of the city as well as the mountains just behind her home. My trip there was for the sole purpose to see her Mother and get to know her family more. While we were there we walked around her village to see the local temple as well as the school she attended as a young girl. The school was a long white building followed by a shorter one just behind a large soccer field. The children were not in school as all of them had finished their exams and were on their break before starting the next year. Niisha is a big fan of taking selfies (as most Nepa...

My Path in Finding The Best Place to Donate to I Don’t Trust Big Organizations When I was a child I have always wanted to help others. Watching the Christian Children’s Fund commercials where they ask you to just donate a few dollars a day and how it can make a huge difference in a child, but as a kid I had no means of being able to give a few dollars a day. As I got older I began to look at large organizations in a sort of skewed light. My Mother donated to the World Wildlife Fund in my name each year and I received a packet with return address labels, a letter thanking me for the donation, some postcards and other goodies. I don’t know at what point I became jaded by large organizations and giving to them, but I do remember getting frustrated at how larger organizations are ran. There are CEOs and other executives that take very large salaries. People that run entire marketing departments that receive salaries for the work they do. The organizations make a lot of mon...

In November of 2015 I found myself volunteering in Nepal for a couple of weeks. During that time, I ended up falling in love with the country and extended my stay an extra week to get to know the people I had come to know better and enjoy more of what Pokhara and Nepal had to offer. One evening a conversation came up about paragliding, which is one of the more popular activities to do while in Pokhara. The Hidden Paradise Hotel and Guest House is a popular spot for these high flying thrill seekers. I, being more of a grounded person, couldn’t quite get excited about the dangerous activity of jumping off of a cliff in hopes that a wing would keep them from plummeting to their death. I was coerced and questioned as to why I wouldn’t want to ever try it, when I finally said “It’s just not my thing.” I added “I ride horses, I have for over 30 years, and I enjoy the connection and the thrill that horseback riding and the horses themselves bring. That is m...